4th Round
Leeds Rhinos 72 d. Workington Town 10

2007 Challenge Cup Index [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: Challenge Cup

Early Donald blitz sees Rhinos cruise past Workington
Sat March 31, 2007
Source: www.therfl.co.uk

Scott Donald blitzed Workington Town's collection of farmers, labourers and Sellafield workers with four tries inside the opening 21 minutes as Leeds Rhinos cruised into the fifth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

The Rhinos' Australian winger needed just 51 seconds to open the scoring against the Cumbrian part-timers and it was one-way traffic thereafter as Leeds ran in 13 tries.

The yawning gulf between engage Super League and National League Two was graphically illustrated by the speed and handling of Leeds' attacks, and a 42-0 interval score was indicative of their control.

In addition to Donald's four-try haul, influential scrum-half Rob Burrow claimed a hat-trick while youngsters Jordan Tansey (2) and Carl Ablett also touched down along with skipper Kevin Sinfield, Ali Lauitiiti and Matt Diskin.

Workington wing Stephen Dawes and second row Darryn King crossed the line in the closing stages but that did little to mask Leeds' total dominance.

It was no surprise the hosts began the brighter ? the vast majority of Workington's squad had been working in their day jobs until lunchtime before boarding the coach to West Yorkshire.

Yet perhaps not even Rhinos coach Tony Smith, who made nine appearances for Workington in the inaugural Super League season, could have foreseen how dominant his side would be.

A bewildering array of inter-passing between Burrow, Danny McGuire and Ashley Gibson sent Donald racing clear into the left corner inside the opening minute.

Delightful handling from Lauitiiti then sent Tansey over three minutes later before Donald collected Diskin's exquisite long offload to go over in the left corner again.

In the 18th minute his hat-trick try arrived when he again scampered clear down the left flank and his fourth arrived three minutes later after more good work from the mercurial McGuire.

Leeds continued to press and were rewarded when Tansey collected McGuire's pass to go over and Sinfield then collected a reverse pass from Ablett to crash under the posts.

Burrow touched down Gibson's audacious grubber on the stroke of half-time and Lauitiiti barged his way over shortly after the restart.

Burrow, Ablett and Diskin then crossed before Burrow raced clear to complete his hat-trick after Workington prop Dean Vaughan was sinbinned shortly after the hour mark.

Sinfield landed eight conversions and Burrow claimed two before Workington's small band of fans had something to cheer in the closing stages when Dawes squeezed over and then King touched down, with Stephen Kirkbride adding the extras to King's score.

Leeds Rhinos (42) 72
Tries: Donald 4, Burrow 3, Tansey 2, Sinfield, Diskin, Ablett, Lauitiiti
Goals: Sinfield 8, Burrow 2

Workington Town (0) 10
Tries: King, Dawes
Goals: Kirkbride

Leeds Rhinos: Tansey, Donald, Toopi, Gibson, Smith, McGuire, Burrow, Thackray, Diskin, Bailey, Lauitiiti, Kirke, Sinfield.
Subs: Peacock, Ablett, Leuluai, Jones-Buchanan.

Workington Town: R Lunt, Dawes, Kmet, Beattie, Wilson, Forber, Kirkbride, Vaughan, S Lunt, Lavulavu, King, Beaumont, Walsh
Subs: Robinson, McGuinness, Purdham, Burgess.

Referee: Jamie Leahy
Att: 3,576

Report source: www.therfl.co.uk

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